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| (Linda, in Trinidad - we we there a few years ago) |
In The Contemplative Pastor Eugene Peterson subversively quotes C.S.
Lewis as saying "only lazy people work hard." Peterson is especially
referring to pastors: only lazy pastors work hard. Why?
Lazy pastors become busy and work hard for two ignoble reasons:
Lazy pastors become busy and work hard for two ignoble reasons:
1.
I
am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant. What
better way than to be busy? (Kindle Location 156)
2.
I am busy because I am lazy. I indolently let others decide what I will do
instead of resolutely deciding myself. I let people who do not understand the
work of the pastor write the agenda for my day's work because I am too slipshod
to write it myself. (Kindle Locations 161-163)
When God calls you to do
something, your doing is relevant because it emerges from your being-with God.
Then, be relevantly busy and hard-working. But...
... re. #2 Peterson
writes:
"By lazily
abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values
and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves
frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different
demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off
the disaster of disappointing someone…
… How can I lead people
into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How
can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle
my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?" (Kindle
Locations 166-171)
